Nah, for the time Chief actually had a lot more characterization than a lot of mute FPS protagonists. And, really, Cortana was the main character of HALO: CE. Chief was just her sidekick.
But the nameless faceless mostly silent FPS protagonist was a trope for years and years before HALO:CE came out.
Gordon Freeman doesn't have a single line of dialogue in any of the games he appears in.
The Doomguy never says anything and had no characterization in Doom and Doom II
I don't believe the Security Guard from Marathon never says anything that I recall. Instead, much like HALO, he's Durandal's sidekick.
I don't believe the protagonists of Quake, Hexen, Heretic, or Blood have any dialogue though I may be wrong as it has been almost thirty years.
It's been a very long time since I played the original Unreal, but again, I don't recall much dialogue.
Dark Forces and Jedi Knight Dark Forces II stand out because Kyle Katarn does get dialogue and characterization, and the story of Dark Forces II is his personal quest to reconnect with his father and learn about the Force.
HALO: CE came out in 2001. Compared to most of the FPS protagonists of the 1990s Chief practically couldn't shut up.
Duke Nukem was a notable 90s exception, though the only thing you could tell about him from his dialogue was that he had massive testosterone poisoning and really, really liked 80s action movies.
Minor correction on Marathon, the cyborg/security guard sends himself terminal messages over the course of the series but what they say is both garbled and esoteric so it's hard to tell what his personality is.
Caleb from Blood did have dialogue and some minor characterization - dude liked murder, and was really mad when his girlfriend died. That's about it, but it's still more than most FPS protags from the time. Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior was notably a huge chatterbox, never fuckin' shut up - there wasn't much actual value to his character because it was mostly just comedy of varying degrees of funny filtered through a racist imitation of an 'Asian' accent, but nevertheless it existed.
The guy in Redneck Rampage talked too, though that again was just jokes filtered through a cartoon redneck accent filter. Still, point being: protagonists that talked were kind of a trademark of Build Engine games, all the notable ones had a vocal protagonist. Your overall point is still correct, though.
Nah, for the time Chief actually had a lot more characterization than a lot of mute FPS protagonists. And, really, Cortana was the main character of HALO: CE. Chief was just her sidekick.
But the nameless faceless mostly silent FPS protagonist was a trope for years and years before HALO:CE came out.
Did he? He was mostly just stoic and badass with the occasional witty moment
Gordon Freeman doesn't have a single line of dialogue in any of the games he appears in.
The Doomguy never says anything and had no characterization in Doom and Doom II
I don't believe the Security Guard from Marathon never says anything that I recall. Instead, much like HALO, he's Durandal's sidekick.
I don't believe the protagonists of Quake, Hexen, Heretic, or Blood have any dialogue though I may be wrong as it has been almost thirty years.
It's been a very long time since I played the original Unreal, but again, I don't recall much dialogue.
Dark Forces and Jedi Knight Dark Forces II stand out because Kyle Katarn does get dialogue and characterization, and the story of Dark Forces II is his personal quest to reconnect with his father and learn about the Force.
HALO: CE came out in 2001. Compared to most of the FPS protagonists of the 1990s Chief practically couldn't shut up.
Duke Nukem was a notable 90s exception, though the only thing you could tell about him from his dialogue was that he had massive testosterone poisoning and really, really liked 80s action movies.
Minor correction on Marathon, the cyborg/security guard sends himself terminal messages over the course of the series but what they say is both garbled and esoteric so it's hard to tell what his personality is.
Caleb from Blood did have dialogue and some minor characterization - dude liked murder, and was really mad when his girlfriend died. That's about it, but it's still more than most FPS protags from the time. Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior was notably a huge chatterbox, never fuckin' shut up - there wasn't much actual value to his character because it was mostly just comedy of varying degrees of funny filtered through a racist imitation of an 'Asian' accent, but nevertheless it existed.
The guy in Redneck Rampage talked too, though that again was just jokes filtered through a cartoon redneck accent filter. Still, point being: protagonists that talked were kind of a trademark of Build Engine games, all the notable ones had a vocal protagonist. Your overall point is still correct, though.